MovieChat Forums > Ellery Queen (1975) Discussion > Mind boggling that this show was cancele...

Mind boggling that this show was canceled after one season...

posted 13 years ago by FlaxyMartin
20 replies | jump to latest

As I watch this series on DVD, I can't help but to wonder what was NBC thinking canceling it. Having watched all 12 seasons of Murder She Wrote, I can't figure out what was it about that show that had staying power vs Ellery Queen. I have read enough comments and reviews on line for both series and people make great arguments about the pros and cons of each show, but I can't help thinking that if Ellery Queen had more seasons than Murder She Wrote, I would prefer it.

For example, Ellery being around crime scenes and in the middle of murder investigations is more realistic than JB Fletcher because of his father being an inspector. On Murder She Wrote, lieutenants and sergeants are either very forthcoming with details of a case, or Jessica goes snooping around - and even then, people including suspects are very forthcoming with information.

Ellery and his father's chemistry was beyond believable. Their banter up until a crime was solved worked. I also liked that we got to see a side of him that wasn't just writing and poking around solving murders - the females. While there weren't many, and it wasn't anything serious, it worked.

Also, because it was a show that took place in the 40s, 1947 to be exact, besides the period fashion, cars, etc we got to enjoy the police procedures of the time (no DNA!) and there was heavy emphasis on radio and the newspaper, because television was such a brand new medium. Simon Brimmer and Frank Flannigan would have worked well as reoccurring characters. Just like Len Cariou as Michael Hagarty and Keith Michel as Dennis Stanton on MSW.

I just really can't understand how this show was only given a season and was canceled and MSW was given 12 starting 10 years later with very similar pots. How much did the target audience's tastes change in 10 years? Your thoughts?

[–] jaybabb 13 years ago

Jim Hutton, who played Ellery Queen has gotten sick and he couldn't do it any more. That is why the show was canceled. Jim Hutton was a tough act to follow and you can't replace that. If he was more healthy-then more seasons would have been made. He died in 1978.

I happen to dislike Archie Bunker with great passion and conviction

Jay

[–] FlaxyMartin 13 years ago

Can you link me to something that supports this?

I have never heard of his illness being behind the reason this series was canceled. I have always heard the network wasn't pleased with the ratings compared to the cost to produce it so they canned it. Jim Hutton died in June of 1979 of liver cancer and he had quite a few credits after Ellery Queen. I don't know if he was actually sick while filming EQ or was even diagnosed because he looked great.

[–] jaybabb 13 years ago

No, I can't link anything to support it. This is what I always assumed. But you maybe right. I stand corrected on when he died.

I happen to dislike Archie Bunker with great passion and conviction

Jay

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[–] MsELLERYqueen2 13 years ago

I was born around the time that this show was on the air. I just discovered this show recently. Jim Hutton is unbelievably adorable in this series!

Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen - totally hot!

[–] gppressingon 13 years ago

I've been watching the DVDs with my Mom and after each episode we ask ourselves the same question--"How could such a great series be canceled after one year?"

Were the ratings so bad as to warrant cancelation? I looked up on Wikipedia the 1975-76 television season and see that ELLERY QUEEN aired on Thursday nights, 9-10pm Eastern. It was up against THE CBS THURSDAY NIGHT MOVIE and THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO on ABC (which series was the slot's top-rated show). It's strong competition, but not devastating (like, for example, going up against ALL IN THE FAMILY).

The Wikipedia page for the series notes that Richard Schickel of TIME Magazine panned it. He said it failed to evoke nostalgia. Maybe he was representative of other critics and viewers. The late 1940s setting was only 30 years removed, like our watching a series set in the early 1980s (though 1950's nostalgia was booming in '75-76 with HAPPY DAYS and LAVERNE & SHIRLEY).

I wonder if in 1975 there just wasn't an older, dare I say more sophisticated audience like that which aged in time to make MURDER, SHE WROTE a hit. The writing in ELLERY QUEEN is excellent, the episodes' casts boast some of the best stars of big and small screen, but in '75 it seems like viewers wanted fast-moving, action-oriented stories like STARSKY & HUTCH and BARETTA.

That's just my guess--the old "ahead of it's time" excuse. I'm just grateful for the DVDs, because it would be a shame for a great series like this to disappear down the memory hole because it ran only one year.

[–] misspaddylee 13 years ago

The Wikipedia page for the series notes that Richard Schickel of TIME Magazine panned it. He said it failed to evoke nostalgia. Maybe he was representative of other critics and viewers.

I remember that Cleveland Amory of TV Guide absolutely adored the series. The strong fan base has never forgotten it. Funny thing is, I seem to remember watching it on Sunday evenings, not Thursday. I guess I was transported to another world when the show was on.

"Tell me about the squares, Buzzie."

[–] heymrbluesman 12 years ago

Thank you misspaddylee - I also seem to remember watching it on Sunday nights. As I read through this, I thought, "boy, I'm usually pretty good about remembering when something was on and I remember this being on Sundays." Thursday or Sunday, it was a fantastic show (even for 1 season). That I can still remember so many details, now, almost 40 years later, is a testament to how good this show was.

[–] Jimmy-128 10 years ago

I also seem to remember watching it on Sunday nights.

Count me in on that, too. I remember begging my parents to let me stay up and watch it, because it was at 9pm on Sunday.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] MsELLERYqueen2 13 years ago

I wish that this show had gone on for a couple more years. Oh well....

Ellery Queen (Jim Hutton) = sexiest man ever!

[–] Mincom 13 years ago

I so agree with the original post. After purchasing and viewing this series on DVD, I can't believe the show would have been cancelled after one season.

It should have lasted for several seasons, it's certainly much better than 'Murder She Wrote'.

[–] MsELLERYqueen2 13 years ago

Unfortunately, it couldn't have run that much longer, since Jim Hutton died in 1979. Even just one more season would have been great! Oh well....

Ellery Queen (Jim Hutton) = sexiest man ever!

[–] aer71367-313-155069 11 years ago

I have to agree with the OP on this one. I too after watching this series wondered how on earth it got canceled after one season!

[–] codykilgore 11 years ago

It's too bad that Ellery Queen didn't go for a couple more seasons. It's a quirky charm that I love and like the chemistry between Hutton and Wayne.

[–] Jimmy-128 10 years ago

Agreed. David Wayne was one of my favorite character actors.

I tend to lean toward the "ratings/production costs" argument rather than the one citing Jim Hutton's health. "Wonder Woman" had gotten cancelled, too, because of the high production costs of a series set in the 1940s (the series only survived by moving to another network and moving the setting up to the 1970s).

[–] FlushingCaps 10 years ago

I agree with all you wrote (long ago) Flaxy. This show was brilliant and should have been the long-running hit that Murder She Wrote was. I liked the recurring characters of Simon Brimmer and Frank Flannigan and they got some good laughs in particular from Flannigan with his "predictions" for the future that we, years later, knew were totally off the mark.

As for the Thursday/Sunday argument, The Complete Directory of Prime Time TV Shows lists this being on Thursday from September to December 1975 at 9 p.m. EST and then moving to Sunday nights at 8 from January 1976 until it left the air in September 1976.

On a Detective DVD set I got a while ago, there was 1 episode of the old Ellery Queen--the one that was on from 1950-52. That episode had THE cheapest set I ever saw. Queen was supposed to be investigating a killing at a circus. We essentially saw a couple of different curtains (supposed to be the back wall of tents) for virtually every scene. They had a few of the usual circus people but all we saw was the inside of a couple of their tents.

I'd love to see another incarnation of this series--I know we don't have Jim Hutton, but, well, we don't. But something else set up like this series, put on in a good time slot could easily be a successful show. Maybe on a USA type channel, it could run like Monk did. But it would be good to NOT have it set in present day, with all the DNA and scientific investigating, it would get lost amidst those types of shows. The late 40s was a great time for the setting--I would go there again.

[–] MsELLERYqueen2 9 years ago

If Jim had lived longer, then he and his son could have done an EQ series, where Jim could have played Richard Queen. A lost opportunity, for sure.

~~
💕 JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen 👍

[–] aer71367-313-155069 7 years ago

What a wonderful idea that would have been!